Friday, November 25, 2016

Every November and December, me and good friend Shelly Covington-Montana
do a series of lectures on the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot for the
kids of Dallas' Highland Park School District. The kids - who are about 7 or 8
years old - always get a kick out of the spooky, creepy tales and
visuals, and afterward, the teachers ask the kids to do some drawings of
what they liked. Here's a few of the newest pictures, which arrived in
the mail today from one of the schools. Very cool!

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Monstro Bizarrois a new book from Lyle Blackburn. Its subtitle will give you a good idea of its contents: An Essential Manual of Mysterious Monsters.
This is an excellent book, one which covers a wide and varied body of
subjects and which is both informing and entertaining. Before I get to
the matter of the content of the book, however, there’s the important
issue of the layout, style and design. I have to say this is a very
skilfully designed book that is filled with photos, paintings, drawings,
movie posters, etc. Every single page of the book is lavishly
illustrated. Most of the pages contain at least two or three images –
and the vast majority of the images are in color, which is a major
bonus.

As the author of both The Beast of Boggy Creek and Lizard Man (and of the forthcoming Beyond Boggy Creek)
Blackburn knows his subject-matter well. If you are interested in the
issue of so-called “Hairy Hominids” – Bigfoot, the Yeti, etc. – then you
won’t be disappointed. We begin with “Bigfoot Beasts” and a section
titled “On the Track of Sasquatch Cinema,” which is an extremely well
compiled summary of all the essential Bigfoot/Yeti-themed movies, such
as The Snow Creature, The Abominable Snowman, The Legend of Boggy Creek, and Exists.
Of the latter, Blackburn says: “The plausible story, exceptional
creature suit and skilled filmmaking set a new mark for Sasquatch
cinema.”

Over the course of more than a decade, Linda Godfrey has written a
number of excellent books on what many might call werewolves, but which
are becoming more and more popularly known as Dogmen. Linda’s books
include The Beast of Bray Road, Hunting the American Werewolf, The Michigan Dogman, Werewolves, and Real Wolfmen. Well, Linda now has yet another book to add to the pack: Monsters Among Us: An Exploration of Otherworldly Bigfoots, Wolfmen, Portals, Phantoms, and Odd Phenomena.
Published by Tarcher, this 352-page book is, in my opinion, Linda’s
most ambitious of all. It’s packed with intriguing photos, too.

In each and every one of her previous books that tackled such
inflammatory issues as werewolves and Dogmen, Linda was always careful
to present the reader with a wide and varied body of theories that might
go some way to explaining what is really afoot. We’re talking about
allegedly real werewolves, mistaken identity, paranormal phenomena, and
hoaxes. But, why do I say that – for me – Monsters Among Us is
Linda’s most satisfying book to date? Well, it’s because this one, more
than any other, seeks to figure out, exactly, what on earth is going on.
A number of people, over the years and decades, have done their utmost
to try and understand – and unify under one banner – the clear
connections between various paranormal/unexplained phenomena that many
would suggest are unconnected. I’m talking about John Keel,
Jacques Vallee, Greg Bishop and Rob Riggs. Now, we can add Linda to that
illustrious list.

On September 21 of this year the FBI uploaded to its website, The Vault, its eye-opening file on Nikola Tesla. The file, which can be found at this link,
makes for fascinating reading. It was actually declassified more than a
few years ago and, for a while, could be found at the FBI’s main website. When, however, the FBI created The Vault
many of its files – such as those on Marilyn Monroe,
Cattle-Mutilations, Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, and Elvis Presley – were
transferred (and then deleted) from the original site and posted to the
new one. Some files, however, were not re-posted: they were just
deleted. And that included the Tesla file. But, the good news, as I note
above, is that the Tesla file is now once again available for easy
download and study.

A few weeks ago I spoke at the annual Greater New England UFO Conference
on the subject of the Men in Black. Also speaking at the gig was Ronny
Le Blanc, who generously gave me a review copy of his 2016 book, Monsterland: Encounters with UFOs, Bigfoot and Orange Orbs. As you can probably guess from the title already, Ronny’s book is a controversial one. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Monsterland
is a book that is very likely to split readers into two factions: those
who believe that the various paranormal phenomena that Ronny describes
are somehow inter-linked, and those who are of the opinion that such
things cannot have such connections.

In other words, if – like me – you are a fan of the works of people
such as John Keel, Linda Godfrey, and Rob Riggs, you really should get a copy of Monsterland.
Even if you’re not, you should still invest in it, as it may very well
cause you to reassess your views that Bigfoot, UFOs and strange lights
have no connection. As for the title of the book, it is taken from a
certain area in Leominster, Massachusetts which is known locally as
“Monsterland.” And with good reason, too: like Point Pleasant, West
Virginia; Cannock Chase, England; and Texas’ Big Thicket, it’s a hotbed
for a wide and varied body of incredible weirdness.

There's a new article from me at Mysterious Universe that starts as follows...

In the latter part of 1888, a deadly figure roamed the shadowy and
foggy back-streets of Whitechapel, London, England by night. He
violently slaughtered prostitutes, provoking terror throughout the
entire capital. He quickly became – and still remains to this very day –
the world’s most notorious serial-killer. He was, in case you haven’t
by now guessed, Jack the Ripper. But, what makes the Ripper so infamous,
more than a century after his terrible crimes were committed, is that
his identity still remains a mystery. And everyone loves a mystery. So,
who might Jack have been? The theories are almost endless. Indeed, more
than thirty potential suspects have been suggested. They include a
surgeon, a doctor, a poet, and even a midwife.

Without doubt, the most controversial theory for whom, exactly, Jack
the Ripper might have been, is that he was a member of the British Royal
Family (an outdated, irrelevant entity that should be abolished, in my
opinion). The suspect: Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence. It is, however, a claim that has no basis in fact.

Monday, October 31, 2016

There are a bunch of new articles from me at Mysterious Universe, one on Nessie (which can be found at the website of Llewellyn Books) and another new one at Jim Harold's website - the latter being specifically for Halloween.

Today, the Royal Air Force facility at Cosford, near Wolverhampton, England, is probably best known for its huge museum.
It is home to an impressive collection of vintage military aircraft.
More than fifty years ago, however, Cosford became briefly famous for an
entirely different reason. At around 11:30pm on the evening of December
10, 1963 (or shortly after midnight on the 11th, according to some
sources), a dome-shaped UFO touched down
on the base, bathed the surrounding area in a green light, and was seen
at close quarters by two young RAF apprentices. Some say it
crash-landed, rather than briefly touched-down.

At least, within UFO circles that was the accepted story for more
than a few years. In accordance with the British Government’s “Thirty Year Ruling,”
however, the Air Ministry’s eighty-page file on the case was
declassified in 1994 and was made available for inspection at the U.K.’s
National Archive at Kew, England. I obtained a copy of the file shortly
after it was placed in the public domain; its contents make for
interesting reading.